When the current Ford F-150 debuted back in 2004, it was a good looking truck that drove well, but it had several design issues that annoyed me to no end. One of them was the design of the floor on crew cab models. Lift up the seats and instead of an unobstructed load floor you got a big jack mounted on the passenger side. Chevrolet managed to get it right with this Silverado...
Not only do the seats fold up easily, the floor is obstructed. This leaves a sizable amount of interior cargo space when there's no one sitting in back. Seems simple, but when it's not done right you notice.
rasldasl says:
10:34 AM, 12/18/06
"Seems simple, but when it's not done right you notice."
These days, when just about every car is at least 95% right, that is all that is left to fix. Kudos to GM for getting more and more stuff done right lately.
rasldasl says:
10:40 AM, 12/18/06
I'm reading the blog top-down today. The next (last?) post on the Tahoe is an example of GM not doing it right. The fold-flat 3rd row in the Ford SUV's is the type of feature that can draw shoppers from one brand to another for a similar vehicle. Ford has has the power 3rd row since the last generation, what was GM thinking?
jeffreyd53 says:
02:54 PM, 12/20/06
It is very nice to see GM comming around with thoughtful designs. I also agree about fords poor design with the Jack and seat support in the way of floor space. If you will remember though Nissans' Titan has the same easy fold up seat and also the seatback folds down with no floor obstruciton. The fold down feature is very useful as I was able to fit a 27" flat screen tube TV in the back of my dads Titan King Cab with the seat back folded down.
trjnflip says:
12:04 PM, 12/27/06
I think you'd find that same design in the Honda Ridgeline. In fact, Honda promotes that you can fit your mtn bike there too.